Assertion #3 (kind of...)
I have been talking about my assertions.  That said, this article is a break in the middle of my assertions.  It is foundational.  These are the things I know for certain.  There are only a few them:

God Created the world:
I don’t exactly know how God did it, and it quite frankly doesn’t matter to me.  I just believe that the purpose of the book of Genesis is to let us know that God created the world and to let us know why God created the world and placed us in it.

God created us to love (and we blew it):
How do we love a God we cannot see or touch? By loving each other and by being stewards of God’s creation, both of which we pretty much suck at doing.   We've done everything we can possibly do to destroy God's earth and destroy each other. 

Jesus is God's Word of Love and Forgiveness (not "a" word, but "THE" Word)
Jesus is not just a messenger of God’s love. He is God’s LOVE and forgiveness and restoration of relationship for those of us who can’t perform a simple task of loving (in other words, for ALL OF US: Christians and Muslims and Atheists and Agnostics and Jews and Straight People and Gays and Lesbians and Good Citizens and Murderers and Rich and Poor and Americans and Arabs, and Latinos and even Canadians!).

We Killed God's LOVE
We can't even accept a gift of LOVE, let alone love each other. We aren't happy with LOVE parading around in the world, loose for all to receive.  We can't control it.  LOVE is unmanageable.  Therefore, we kill LOVE whenever we get the opportunity because LOVE is a threat to our lifestyle.  It cramps our style and demands a change.  Therefore, we killed LOVE, Jesus.  

LOVE has the last laugh. 
We can kill a lover.  We can destroy evidence of love.  However, we can’t destroy LOVE.  LOVE (Jesus) came back to life and forgave us and loved us despite our treachery. 

We only have ONE responsibility in life!  (...and we can't get that one right)
We are responsible to tell people about the LOVE of God gifted to the world through Jesus Christ.  That’s it. "You are loved by the almighty God.  Jesus is the source of this love and IS LOVE."  Unfortunately, we get our hands in there and want to change people and convict them of every dogma and doctrine of our belief.  Once again, we try to kill the LOVE of the world.

Changing people is Not in My Department
God is the one who changes people.  I am a messenger of LOVE (Jesus), and God is the one who changes people. All I am responsible to do is announce LOVE, and get out of the way of God's Spirit and let the Spirit change people as the Spirit wills.

Unfortunately, we want to pound our fist and let people know how we think they should change.  How arrogant.  I can’t even get out of bed in the morning without the blessing of God, let alone get the mess of my life straightened out, and I have the audacity to think that I can tell you how to get your life together?  Forgive my stupidity.   

Maybe you are struggling with sin “E” and the Spirit needs to straighten out the sins “A, B, C and D” before you can even get to “E”.  How limited my knowlege.  I want you to go straight to E, when the Spirit knows that you are not even ready to change E, and may not even be aware that it needs to be changed.  Thank God that God is merciful, though we are not.

That's the sum of what I know to be true.  It's not alot, but it's enough.  Everything else is just an assertion. 

Assertion # 1: The current form of the institutional church is singing its swan song. 

(Yes, that means your congregation, I don’t care how seemingly healthy and how big it may be.  Don’t bother writing to me and telling me how your congregation is different.  It isn’t.  It is in the process of dying.  If it isn’t, it should be.)
 
But do not fear… God is always faithful.

Little churches are shriveling and dying.  Big churches are growing by adding members from these little churches and by adding those who already have a proclivity to church. Yet, the majority of America doesn’t give a rip about church.  

Do you know that a recent Gallup Poll says that 45% of Americans attend church on a given Sunday?  Hogwash!  Surprisingly, people lie when asked about their worship patterns.  Shock!  According to Dr. David T. Olsen (a church sociologist who had the novel thought to actually ask churches how many people were actually in church on a given Sunday) only 12% to 14% of Americans actually worship on any given Sunday.  

The reason for America’s turning their back on the church is not, as atheists proclaim, because Americans don’t believe in God anymore.  It’s just that they are sick of the church (for many good reasons).  The church is doing nothing to reach the 86% who are not in our pews.  Believe it or not, even though it appears that there are lots of churches, there are actually only 1/2 the churches per capita today that there were in 1950! 

WAKE UP CHURCH.  STOP YOUR SLUMBERING!

So what is our future?  The big churches (your church that you think is healthy and doing well) will just keep getting bigger, for another 10 to 15 years, until there aren’t members from small congregations to scavenge.  Pretty soon, that 10,000 member church will be a 9,000 member church, but no-one will notice or worry, because 9,000 is still a pretty darn good size.  Then, that 9,000 member church will only be a 5,000 member church.  Not to worry.  Fire the pastor, and get a new one.  The new pastor will help the congregation grow to 6,000 by scavenging that 2,000 member church down the street, and everyone will be happy again.  In a decade, that 6,000 member church will be down to 1,000 and someone will finally wonder, “WHAT HAPPENED?”

What happened is that we have forgotten the Great Commission.  It isn’t about making members, but about making disciples.  It isn’t about taking people from other congregations, but about going out and reaching the lost sheep who do not have any historical connection to the church.  It isn’t about “converting” Roman Catholics and Episcopalians and Lutherans to our “brand” of Christianity, but bringing Jesus to those who do not know who Jesus is. 

As I said, God is faithful. 

There will be a remnant.  The remnant are those who have not forgotten their purpose within the mission of God.  They will be worshiping in homes and in the highways and byways, though probably not in those white elephant buildings that hold 10,000 people a Sunday.  They won’t even have professional clergy. (gasp… pastors, we might actually have to find alternative employment!)

No, the remnant’s financial resources won’t go into buildings or pastor’s salaries, but into feeding the poor, caring for the needy, comforting the dying, and bringing Jesus to the hopeless.  Gosh, it will kind of be like the church in China or in many places in Africa… and, even kind of like the early church in the book of Acts in that dusty old thing we call the Bible. 

For those who believe that Christ will return before then, I think that is wishful thinking.  Now, more than ever, the world needs the church, and I can’t see Christ taking the church out of the world at the time when the world needs the church the most.  I may be wrong, but I think we had better prepare for the long haul and stop wistfully putting our eggs in one basket and hoping Jesus will return so that we do not have get off of our fat collective rear-end and actually BE the church in the world.

Do you remember what it was like to fall “in love?”  Do you remember that squishy feeling you felt when you were in the presence of the one whom you loved?  As I tell the couples with whom I do pre-marital counseling, that squishy feeling is gas… it passes. 

Nevertheless, that squishy feeling is what motivates us to be better.  We are so in love with a person who we believe is so much better than us and more beautiful than us that we want to become better ourselves.  We don’t become better to manipulate that person to love us more.  We already have their love.  However we are so grateful for their love that we want to love them in return by becoming better people.

How does this apply to God? 

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us a model of prayer.  What I find interesting is that it begins with the words, “Our father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…”  It does not begin with repentance, but with a recognition of God’s holiness. 

Why is this significant?

We can’t even know how inadequate we are, and how fortunate we are, until we have had an experience with the Holy God.   Once we come into the holy presence of God, we recognize how woefully short we are of deserving such love, so we want to change out of our gratitude that a being so powerful and beautiful would take the time to recognize and love us.  Repentance and change are the result of an experience with the almighty God, not a prerequisite for entering into that presence. 

Well, doesn’t that make you weak in the knees?  The God who created the universe brings His Holy presence to us just because He loves us.  I guess there’s no accounting for taste.  He doesn’t expect me to look a certain way or act a certain way.  God just loves me.

In the presence of such love, I want to change.  To think that God could love me, who is only a 5 watt light bulb in the presence of a thundering sun.  I want to become better, not because I have to in order to manipulate God to love me.  I already have the security of God’s love.  I want to become better because I am drop dead, weak in the knees in love. 

The amazing thing about this squishy feeling is that it has not passed.  Once we realize the people whom we love are not much different from us, filled with the same types of warts and faults as we are, our squishy feelings for them pass.  However, no matter how much I change, it is clear to me that no matter what I do, I will always fall far short of God.  I’m certainly marrying up; and, God certainly stooped down to have a relationship with me.  I am a little week in the knees right now.  Gotta go and kneel. 

We Christians are so good about slamming non-Christians and telling them how wicked they are in their life-styles.  Do you realize that Jesus NEVER did that to those who were lost?  The only people whom Jesus slammed were the religious leaders who should know better.  Jesus loved the lost into the kingdom, he did not scream at them and slam them in order to bring them into relationship with him.

Equating that context to today, Jesus would NOT be slamming gays or girls who have had abortions, but us hypocritical Christians who claim to be loving, but through our words and actions demonstrate our hate to the world.  Do you know anyone who was ever been converted to Christ because a Christian screamed at them, “You’re a fag and you’re gonna burn in hell;” or, “You baby killer!” 

Therefore, I am taking a swipe at us Christians, because we participate in and contribute to the most insidious, hate-filled sin of all: gossip.

What makes gossip so destructive is that we do not take it seriously.  It is a sin that destroys relationships, destroys the church, destroys our relationships with non-Christians, numbs our hearts and minds, and kills our relationship with Christ.  Satan does not even lift a finger, but we do Satan’s work. 

Christian gossip always comes to us with a façade of love, but is actually nothing but hate-filled gossip.  “Oh, did you hear about John?  He really needs our prayers.  He went out and cheated on his wife…”  It is as though if we add the word “prayers” to our gossip, it is no longer gossip. 

I will confess.  I have participated in this gossip, to my shame.  It is difficult to avoid.

We gossip about parishioners who have divergent opinions.  We gossip about family.  We gossip about friends.  We gossip about neighbors. 

Even if we don’t participate in gossip about parishioners and neighbors, how many of us have missed out on the opportunity to participate in gossip about public figures, from President Clinton to President Bush, to Jane Fonda to Tom Cruise.  Those are real people, not caricatures.  Just because they are not a part of our life does not give us the right to gossip about them.

We gossip because we like to have information that makes us feel superior to another individual.

Unfortunately, gossip gives us too high a value of ourselves:   Look at what the scriptures say, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  Romans 3:23

We are no better than the gays or girls who have had abortions.  In fact, we are worse.  We should know better, yet we still, every day, take advantage of every opportunity to demonstrate our superiority by tearing another down. 

We need to repent and become a church of love.

A friend of mine once told the story of how a 16 year old girl of his parish got pregnant.  To address the sin of this girl, the board of elders got together and decided that she would be disciplined and removed from the roles of the church unless she were to stand before the whole congregation and repent of her sin against them. 

I was floored for two reasons.

First, because there was no mention of the guy.  Was there some type of “immaculate conception” going on here?  How come the guy gets away clean?  Is it because his belly doesn’t swell with the pregnancy?

Second, I was floored because we act as though these sexual sins are worse than any other. 

I asked whether or not those “gossipers” who tittered and tattered about this girl’s pregnancy and about her “parents’ failure to raise her right” would also be forced to stand before the congregation and repent of their sin.

“Of course not.  That doesn’t affect the congregation the same way.”

EXCUSE ME?  The gossipers did MORE damage to the unity of the church than that girls’ pregnancy, and the church just turned a blind eye and a deaf ear. 

Admit it.  You participate in Christian Internet Gossip.

How do I know?  Because I get enough of this garbage forwarded to me every day.  Not all of it is destructive, some of it is meant to be edifying, but it is still gossip.

“Edifying” Gossip:

·         There is a story going around about how “Mr. Green Jeans” was a hero in WW2, as told by Lee Marvin on the “Tonight Show.”  Never mind the fact that it is not true.  Although Lee Marvin was a genuine hero, “Mr. Green Jeans” was too young to fight in the war, and was only in the military after the war ended.  There is a similar story about “Mr. Rogers” having been a Marine in Vietnam.  Another story that is a bunch of bunk.

·         There is another story about the French architect who designed Washington, DC and how he put Christian symbology into the design of the city.  Another story that doesn’t hold up to historic scrutiny, but makes us Christians feel good.

Then there are the negative examples, many of which I am shocked are STILL floating around:

• “Did you know that _______ (NBC, CBS, ABC:  fill in the blank) is banning _________ (7th Heaven, Billy Graham, Highway to Heaven:  fill in your favorite “spiritual” show) because Madeline Murray O’Hair has petitioned the FCC to take all Christian programming off the air, etc…”  This usually comes with a request to forward a petition to the FCC.  Problem is, the petition to the FCC was in 1973 and had NOTHING to do with Christian programming; and, Madeline Murray O’Hair had NOTHING to do with the petition.  Oh, and by the way. Madeline Murray O’Hair has been dead since 1995, yet her name still keeps cropping up with this type of gossip.
• Have you heard the one about Proctor and Gamble?  I’ve been hearing the same gossip since the 70’s, about their CEO being a Satanist, and having confessed this on _______ (Donohue, Oprah, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno:  it gets updated with a new show all the time), and how the symbols are Satanist, etc…  All bunk!  Unfortunately, Christians have demonized, boycotted, and slammed this company for the last 30 years because of this gossip.   This is, by definition, the bearing of false witness.
• I just got another one about Jane Fonda.  We keep going back to Vietnam, and the story of her visit to Vietnam keeps getting more and more embellished.  While it is true that she visited Vietnam and did sit on the AA guns for a picture, there is some gossip that is just wrong.  The story now says that she took a note, passed to her by one of the American POW’s delineating the torturous treatment they were receiving, and she passed the note on to the Vietnamese who then responded with more torture of these POWs.  None of that is true.  The article mentions the name of the man to whom this supposedly happened.  While he was a POW, he never saw Jane Fonda, and he never passed a note to her.  In fact, he has been so sick and tired of responding to this nonsense that he has since refused to do anymore interviews. 
• I love those letters that start with, “My friend, who is a lawyer… ” Oh, please!  First of all, this letter has been forwarded so many times, no-one knows who this “friend” is.  Second, you can pretty much rest assured that whatever this person is writing about is just more internet gossip and bunk.  Like the one about what “Bill Gates” doesn’t want you to know:  if you forward this letter, you get money…  OH, PLEASE!!!  It’s not true!

Before you forward, I would suggest the following:  check the veracity of everything.  Two great sites are:

www.snopes.com

www.truthorfiction.com

Second, if it does not build up or edify, even if it is true, maybe you should just drag it to the garbage bin.  We need to be a church of love, not of gossip. 

Please note:  these opinions do not reflect the views of The Revolution Church, nor of its members.  This blog comes out of my frustration as a pastor who has to perform weddings on behalf of the state of Pennsylvania. 

Marriage is an opportunity to tell couples about Christ, and I am always grateful for that privilege.  However, you may not be aware that, according to a survey done by George Barna, when asked what was their least favorite responsibility, over 90% of pastors said “Weddings.” 

I confess to disliking most, though not all weddings.  Those couples who just want a pretty picture and to get the job done test my limits of kindness.  A wedding requires 15 to 20 hours of my time away from my family, beyond the 50 to 60 hours per week I already serve at the church.  Couples pay thousands of dollars for flowers, cakes, decorations, dresses, alcohol, limos, dinners, and hall rental, but for some reason resent the church asking for $250 to cover our expenses for an organist, janitor, and pastor. 

I have struggled for years with what could improve this situation, and I believe that I have an answer: that churches no longer be agents of the state in regards to marriage. The state should get out of the marriage business and into the “civil union” business, and let the church define what marriage is and what it is not. Morality is the realm of the church, and legality should be the realm of the state.  The church, for too long, has abdicated its moral authority to the state, especially in regard to marriage, so we have simply become a state agent when it comes to marriage. 

I DO understand that the result of this is that some churches will stick to a traditional view of marriage, and others will not, allowing for gay marriage and more.  The argument for and against traditional views, however, will become a moral issue to be debated in the church, not a legal issue to be debated politically. 

I know that many will disagree, and that’s OK.  Debate away.

My wife is a head-store manager at the McDonalds in Murrysville on Route 22 and leads 75 people whose job it is to make sure your burgers and fries are done to your liking.  While many poke fun at McDonalds, I can tell you that McDonalds is respected world-wide as a leader in training leadership.  Head store managers from McDonalds are well-respected in the business field, and often sought after by other corporations.  One of the things McDonalds’ managers are taught is that they should NEVER work a position.  As soon as they do, they lose control of their store.

I found additional confirmation of this, recently from another well-respected source.  I   finished reading the book, “We Were Soldiers, and Young” by General Hal Moore, who was an exceptional leader, both on the battlefield and in the business field following his retirement. 

General Moore was commander of the 1^st Battalion of the 1^st Cavalry, which was engaged in the first large scale battle between American and North Vietnamese forces in the battle for the Ia Drang Valley, 1965.   General Moore, who at the time was a Lt. Colonel, took less than 500 men into battle against several thousand Vietnamese.  On several occasions during this running battle, the American lines nearly broke, and Col. Moore was tempted to pick up a gun and help shore the line.  However, he knew that once he picked up a gun to join his soldiers on the line, he would lose perspective of the larger battle.  If no-one kept an eye on how the battle was developing, the 1^st Battalion would have been easily flanked and defeated. 

For pastors, it is a mark of humility to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with God’s people, and it is necessary that we do so.  However, someone needs to take a step back to see the larger picture of what is going on.  We are fighting a battle, and the enemy we are fighting is capable of not only taking our life, but also our souls.  If we are to be effective leaders, we need to keep an eye on the battle, for the enemy is swift and cunning, and can easily outflank us. 

What this means for me is that I need to be careful not to get too deeply engaged in details that can be accomplished by others.  I too quickly lose perspective.  Sometimes it is easier to take care of the details of the ministry myself; however, I am stealing an opportunity for someone else to serve, and, I am losing perspective of what needs to be done, and the direction in which we must move.  This week, I realized that I have done many things, none of which are bad, all of which are necessary, but which have caused me to lose focus on the bigger picture:  I chose the hymns for worship this Sunday; JD and I were the ONLY ones setting up and cleaning our new worship site and office space at the Landmark Pavilion; I am the one who up-dated our web-site; I did the flyers and handouts for this weekend’s events.  That is poor leadership on my part.  I am depriving others of their calling, and am losing perspective of what needs to be done.  To be more effective as a leader, I need to delegate these details and resist the temptation to be drawn into them. 

Unlike McDonald’s and the military, however, there is no pay in the work of the church and nothing to compel one to volunteer.  Therefore, I depend upon a self-motivated flock of volunteers to accomplish the tasks that need to be accomplished, which is not always an easy task.

There are two common views on talk radio in the US, both of which I believe are lacking.

Conservatives:  Separation of Church and State was created to protect the church from the state.

Liberals:  Separation of Church and State is to keep the church out of the public forum, and expunge all mention of “God” from public life.

I have been on a history kick recently in my reading, concentrating on the founding fathers.  The works of James Madison are particularly telling regarding how “Separation of Church and State” was intended since the Constitution and the First 19 Amendments to the Constitution were Madison’s handiwork.

There is no question that Madison wanted to protect the state from the church by taking the power of the sword from the church’s hands.  Madison had a fear of the Anglican Church since the authority of that church was the king of England.  He was terrified of the US winning the Revolution, but then finding itself oppressed by England once again because of the dominance of Anglicans in the public life of this country.  His proudest creation was the First Amendment which prohibited this from happening.

Also, the war of 1812 was telling of Madison’s attitudes about the role of religion in the government.  He received tremendous criticism from the clergy of this country for not praying and calling a time of fast during the war. Madison stated that it is not the role of the president to lead the country in prayer, and if people were going to pray, they would do it on their own.

Madison envisioned the United States as a secular nation, not a Christian nation, which allowed tremendous freedom for religion. 

However, while Madison wanted to protect the state from religion, he also wanted to protect religion from the state.  He was a devout Christian man, and he wanted to make sure that he was free to worship God as he saw fit, not as the Anglicans saw fit.  This is the second reason for the First Amendment:  to protect the church from state interference and from the oppression of other faiths.  

Lastly, Madison recognized that religion is important to the life of the country, so it should not be removed from the public forum.  Isn’t it interesting that immediately following the phrase in the First Amendment that the government cannot “prohibit the free exercise” of religion, is a section about freedom of speech.  These are co-joined in Madison’s mind.  Religion is covered under this freedom of speech, which means that if a person has the right in a public forum to talk about sex, abortion, and politics, the same freedom applies to religion.   Religious talk in a public forum is not an establishment of religion.  A specific example from the headlines every year that gets liberals and conservatives fighting is a valedictorian who mentions “God” in a speech at a public school.  Schools are so terrified by potential lawsuits that they forbid religious talk.  This ban is clearly contrary to the First Amendment’s intention.  Mentioning God in a public forum is not a seditious and oppressive act to be censored by the school, but one covered by that student’s freedom under the First Amendment.